Drunken Gamer: Chapter 1

From the tip of my bottle to the bottom of my glass, I often times sit and reminisce the good ol’ days of gaming. Not just about how companies marketed poorly back in those days, but the progress of where games have come from and where they’re headed. What is the future of gaming? Would we even call it gaming in the near future? When we’re in our 60s and the grandchildren are playing the PS9, what stories could we tell them of the old days and how informative would we be about it? In this day and age of the “console wars”, you gotta think that perhaps somewhere down the line it just won’t fucking matter about graphics.

I remember way back in the day of games were meant to be fun and the story lines being so fucking far out there. I mean, you could a cave man sent to the future to beat the living crap out of robotic rabbits. And for what? For the hell of it! If that game does exist, let me know. Anywho… I can say for myself that during my childhood days, Nintendo was the shit for me. I swore my allowance to that company and almost any game they crapped out. Looking back, I can honestly say that I’m glad that I played some of those really awful games. If not, then how could I know of what a good game would be?

Which leads me to something completely different, and that is the big issue about graphics in this generation of gaming. First of all, fuck all of you who think graphics is the major fucking selling point. Reason why I say that, is because I know you’re right, but you should know that can’t be the only thing that makes a great game. Take the indie games made on the PS3 for example, such as Pixel Junk’s Eden and Monsters. Graphics aren’t top notch, but the game play is addictive and the controls are comfortable to get used to. Now onto the bigger companies that produce “non-AAA” title games, but are good none the less. Good in a way that the graphics aren’t next gen, but you still get a kick out of it.

Some games get too much hype nowadays, like Grand Theft Auto 4, for example. Sure it’s a big game and there’s tons of activities to do, but perhaps it’s too much? Also, there’s been issues with the driving controls, using the cell phone, and the story line itself. Too short and can’t hold its’ on weight for what the game could have been, fucking epic. Instead of focusing on one person as the main character, have five others through out the entire city we could play as. Going through their story line and what ever they do affects the story line for the other players. Come on now, let’s get with it on the creative juices!

Now, time for what really gets me pumped like a rabbit during mating season, and that my friends, are the stories created for these games. I could care less that I’m playing an 8-bit game, as long as I’m enjoying the story and characters, that’s all that fucking matters. Thank God for this generations of gaming systems allowing hand drawn artwork to be presented in a more robust manner. Let’s take a look at Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land for the PS2. Epic story line, deep and enchanting environments, and the character development was superb. I spent a straight 26 hours playing this game, and still didn’t beat it. I did a while back, but I pick it up on occasions to have that same feeling of escaping to another world.

Do you ever get that feeling this day and age of gaming? Seriously, think about it. When you play a game like LAIR, do you stop and think “Whao”, I need to take a fucking break”, but you don’t. You keep on playing because you want to know what’s going to happen next. Who’s going to die? Will the hero find that treasure? Questions pour out from you mind, and that feeling of actually being immersed into that world is so powerful. That was the type of feeling most of us gamers felt beck in our childhood, and so did these developers. They’re trying to bring that feeling back with what these systems have to offer, but they seem to forget what made those games fun. The story, characters, and the feeling of leaving behind reality, even for a short while. To all of you developers out there, sit and remember those feelings and memories. Try to hold onto those and write them down on paper. No matter how silly or weird it would be, because that could be the tools to help you create the next biggest hit in gaming.

It’s about time I finish this bottle, fall asleep, and dream all night.